The Rise and Fall of Unions in the United States

Emin Dinlersoz and Jeremy Greenwood

No 19, Economie d'Avant Garde Research Reports from Economie d'Avant Garde

Abstract: Union membership displayed an inverted-U-shaped pattern over the 20th century, while the distribution of income sketched a U. A model of unions is developed to analyze these phenomena. There is a distribution of firms in economy. Firms hire capital, plus skilled and unskilled labor. Unionization is a costly process. A union decides how many firms to organize and its members' wage rate. Simulation of the developed model establishes that skilled-biased technological change, which affects the productivity of skilled labor relative to unskilled labor, can potentially explain the observed paths for union membership and income inequality. In Journal of Monetary Economics (October 2016), v. 83: 129-146.

Keywords: Computer Age; Deunionization; Distribution of Income; Flexible Manufacturing; Mass Production; Numerically Controlled Machines; Skill-Biased Technological Change; Simulation Analysis; Union Membership (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: J24 J51 L11 L16 L23 O14 O33 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2012-02
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-bec, nep-his, nep-hme and nep-lab
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (5)

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Related works:
Journal Article: The rise and fall of unions in the United States (2016)
Working Paper: The Rise and Fall of Unions in the United States (2016)
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